
Book jJ_1j3 4 



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A CHILD'S LIFE 

OF 

ST. JOAN OF ARC 




JOAN LISTENING TO THE VOICES 



A CHILD'S LIFE 

OF 

ST. JOAN OF ARC 



BY 

MARY E. MANNIX 

Author of * 'Patron Saints for Catholic Youth,*' etc. 




New York, Cincinnati, Chicago 

BENZIGER BROTHERS 

PRINTERS TO THE I PUBLISHERS OF 

HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE | BENZIGER's MAGAZINE 
1920 



0« 



I^'V' 



ARTHUR J. SCANLAN, S.T.D., 

Censor Librorum. 



Jtttfirlitmtnr. 

>i* PATRICK J. HAYES, D.D., 

Archbishop of New York. 



New Yoek, September 23, 1920. 

g)CU601718 

Copyright, 1920, by Benziger Brothers 

^iiJv 26 l.^u 



DEDICATION 

Upon thy brow, O dear and dauntless Maid, 
There rests, at last, the Coronal op Glory. 

Thy Mother's Sacred Seal, so long delayed. 
Has closed the volume of thy wondrous story. 

To-day, the children offer at thy feet 

A simple flower — love-planted and love-given, 

O THOU, THAN WHOM WAS NEVER CHILD MORE SWEET, 

St. Joan of Arc — remember us in Heaven! 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I St. Joan's Birth and Ancestry . 9 

II The Voices and St. Joan's Mis- 
sion . . . . . . . 19 

III St. Joan Goes to the King . . SS 

IV The King Sanctions St. Joan . 41 

V St. Joan Leads the Troops to 

Victory . . . . . .51 

VI Defeat and Capture . . . 61 

VII Cauchon Weaves a Net About 

St. Joan 73 

VIII St. Joan's Second Trial . . 81 

IX The Net Grows Stronger . . 89 

X False Charges 99 

XI St. Joan's Execution . . . 105 

XII The Fruits of St. Joan's Mar- 
tyrdom ...... 113 

XIII The Lesson of St. Joan's Life . 119 



A CHILD'S LIFE OF 
ST. JOAN OF ARC 

CHAPTER I 

ST. JOAN'S BIRTH AND ANCESTRY 

O Meuse, beside thy waters clear. 

So gently murmuring by. 
The Voices, whispering in her ear. 

Taught her to live — and die. 

AT last she has come into her own. At 
last, after nearly five hundred years the 
Maid of France has taken her rightful place 
in the ranks of the Church Triumphant, and 
has been placed upon the Calendar of Saints, 
having received from the hands of the Sover- 
eign Pontiff the highest honors it is possible 
for the representative of Christ on earth to 



10 St. Joan's Birth and Ancestry 

confer. It was Pius X, of saintly memory, 
who first elevated the Maid among the 
Blessed and she was canonized on May 13, 
1920, by our Holy Father Pope Benedict 
XV. 

By no country on earth, except her own, 
has this news been welcomed with more en- 
thusiasm than by America; especially since 
the close of the war, during which the Amer- 
ican soldiers rivaled the French in their de- 
votion to her, putting themselves under her 
protection on the battle-field and wearing — 
Cathohc and Protestant alike — ^her medal, 
as a talisman against danger and death. 

The latest statue erected to her memory 
is that on Riverside Drive, New York. It 
is of bronze, thirty-five feet high, and is the 
only statue ever erected to a woman in that 
great emporium of the world. The money 
was raised by subscription, principally in 
small sums by those unable to give more — a 
genuine gift of the people to the great 



St, Joan's Birth and Ancestry 11 

heroine of patriotism, piety, and humanity. 

Even those least famihar with her wonder- 
ful story are aware that she ranks among 
the greatest heroines of the world, while 
many of those better informed have but a 
hazy idea of the times and conditions under 
which she lived. They were times of great 
stress and disturbance. France, in particu- 
lar, had long been in the throes of civil war, 
with all the evils attendant upon a distracted 
and disunited kingdom. 

Worn out with internal strife. Burgundy 
at length appealed to England for relief, 
an appeal which was eagerly welcomed by 
the sister-kingdom, seeing in the disorganiza- 
tion and weakness of her neighbor across the 
channel an opportunity for the conquest she 
had long desired. 

Charles VII, the King of France, had suc- 
ceeded his father to the throne during this 
distracted period; some of his subjects 
acknowledged his supremacy, others were 



12 St, Joan's Birth and Ancestry 

not so loyal. An exile and a wanderer from 
his capital, he had never been crowned, and 
was still commonly spoken of as the Dau- 
phin, because the diadem of sovereignty had 
not yet been formally placed upon his brow. 
Never a brave warrior, he preferred to evade 
responsibility, whenever possible. It was 
at this critical period that the star of St. 
Joan of Arc rose upon the horizon — a sud- 
den, brilliant and wonderful star, quickly to 
reach the zenith of glory, too soon to fade 
into the darkness of ingratitude. 

Even before her time, her native Lorraine 
and its sister-province, Alsace, originally 
belonging to Germany, though on the 
French bank of the Rhine, had always been 
more French than German. For France 
they had fought and bled, to France they had 
pledged their loyalty and devotion. To 
them the German tongue was almost un- 
known, the people aliens, their habits, cus- 
toms and ideals as foreign, perhaps, as those 



St, Joaris Birth and Ancestry 13 

of Spain or Italy. Only a river separated 
them, but generation after generation had 
widened the barrier which divided them. 
Here, on the banks of the Upper Meuse, at 
Domremy, one of the numerous villages that 
nestle there, on January 6th, 1412 — accord- 
ing to the most authentic records— St. Joan 
of Arc was born. Although, from all the 
great wars which from time to time devas- 
tated France, it bore scars of the tragedies in 
which it had taken part, it has always been, 
in the peaceful years between, an ideal and 
picturesque spot. Alas, in this last and most 
bloody of all wars, how often have the gently 
flowing waters of that beautiful river run 
crimson, dyed with the life-torrent of its 
faithful Lorrainers; its green banks, waving 
with garden-flowers, downtrodden beneath 
the tramp of many feet, its little islets, 
clothed with mossy verdure, grown hideous 
and ghastly, obliterated and forgotten their 
fragrant bushes of living green ! 



14 St, Joan's Birth and Ancestry 

The father of St. Joan was named d'Are, 
her mother Isabelle Romee. Up to the time 
of her birth there had been four children in 
the family, three boys and a girl, named 
Catherine, who died in her infancy. Her 
native village, save for the ravages which 
war has made, is very little changed since 
the day when the newly-born child was taken 
to the church for baptism^ This church, 
toward which her innocent, childish feet were 
early bent, the scene of her prayers and aspi- 
rations, where she armed her soul with the 
shields of virtue, constancy, and courage, 
is more than lowly — it is poor, though full 
of harmonious colors, with one little corner 
which is shown to visitors as the spot where 
St. Joan was accustomed to pray. 

On the threshold stands, or stood, a statue 
of St. Joan, more simple than devotional. 
Among the trees, at a few paces from the 
church, is, or was — ^we know not how war 
has left it — a bust of St. Joan in white mar- 



St. Joan's Birth and Ancestry 15 

ble. A stone's throw distant stands the 
dwelKng in which she was born. "Trees 
envelop the walls with their overhanging 
branches," writes one who reverently visited 
it some years ago. "A third part of the 
roof, at least, is covered with ivy. Above 
the door, which is low, are three shields of 
armorial bearings — or, to speak more cor- 
rectly, the door is surmounted by three 
escutcheons: that of Louis XI, who caused 
the cottage to be embellished; that which 
was granted to one of the brothers of St. 
Joan*named Lys; and a third bearing a star 
under three plowshares, fo symbolize St. 
Joan's mission and the lowly condition of her 
parents." Jacques d'Arc was a man of good 
standing in the country, the proprietor of a 
farm, owning sheep, oxen, and cows. He 
and his wife were devout Christians and sin- 
cere patriots — French to the core of their 
loyal, honest hearts. They had seen France 
divided, the King of England master of 



16 St, Joan's Birth and Ancestry 

Paris, the King of France deserted, contin- 
ually a prey to increasing misfortunes. 

In the fields and by the firesides the ter- 
rible state of their country was the constant 
topic of conversation among these faithful 
villagers, and we read that it was the nightly 
custom of Isabelle to clasp her children's 
hands together and teach them to say, *'0, 
God! save France!" 

Into this pious family was born our hero- 
ine, who, as soon as she was able to speak 
and understand, began to love her desolated 
fatherland with an all-overpowering love. 
She was a true Frenchwoman, energetic and 
enthusiastic, quick on her feet, skillful with 
her hands, ready with swift smile and bright 
repartee, but above all things prudent, pious, 
and finding her greatest pleasure before the 
altar of God. She had an uncle who was a 
cure, and a cousin, l^^icolas Romee, a relig- 
ious in the Abbey of Cheminou, who later 
became her chaplain. She herself could 



St, Joan's Birth and Ancestry 17 

neither read nor write and learned her 
prayers, the Ave Maria, the Our Father, 
and the Creed, from the lips of her devoted 
mother. 



CHAPTER II 

THE VOICES AND ST. JOAN's MISSION 

NOT far from the village of Domremy 
stood a lordly castle, long untenanted. 
In the garden was a chapel of Our Lady. 
In this garden St. Joan, in her hours of re- 
laxation, was fond of walking and meditat- 
ing alone. And it may be that here she first 
heard those mysterious Voices which came 
to her again and again, bidding her leave 
all things and hasten to the relief of France, 
a mission to which she had been destined by 
Almighty God. 

There are two accounts of the manner in 
which St. Joan received this mysterious mis- 
sion. The first of these relates that, being 
in her thirteenth year, she stood in her 

19 



20 The Voices and St, Joans Mission 

father's garden, alone, at midday, reciting 
the Angelas, Suddenly a peculiar light, 
brighter than that of the sun, seemed to sur- 
round her, and looking upward she saw the 
figure of an angel which later she identified 
as that of St. Michael. Behind him hovered 
a multitude of smaller angelic forms, moving 
in the fight of his great but gentle majesty. 

"Joan, Joan!" said the Archangel. "Be 
good and religious! Love God and attend 
Mass regularly." 

She had always loved God and taken the 
greatest delight in going to Mass. But the 
vision made a great impression on St. Joan 
and when it recurred again, the Angel said 
to her, "I am Michael, the protector of 
France." On another occasion he said, 
"Joan, the Kingdom of France is in sore 
straits," but promised her that the country 
would be saved, that God would raise a 
savior who would defiver the French from 
their enemies. 



The Voices and St. Joans Mission 21 

"Tell me his name !" cried St. Joan. "Let 
me know who is to save us!" 

"It is yourself, daughter of God," an- 
swered the Archangel. "Go you must!" 

"But I am only a poor girl! I do not 
know my a, b, c's. I can not ride a horse 
or go to war!" 

In spite of this declaration of her igno- 
rance St. Joan firmly believed in the words 
of the Archangel, which were afterward 
supplemented by advice and counsel from 
St. Margaret and St. Catherine, but as yet, 
in her humility, St. Joan made no effort to 
act upon them, breathing no word concern- 
ing them except to her confessor, who, as 
is generally the case with priestly advisers, 
was slow to countenance her revelations. 

As St. Joan was always happy and gay, 
for a long time no one suspected the holiness 
of her life. Under a smihng exterior, she 
reflected a great deal, wondering, hesitating, 
yet never doubting the summons she quietly 



22 The Voices and St. Joans Mission 

awaited, to enter upon a task which God 
had called her to fulfill. 

St. Joan was now past sixteen years of 
age and the Voices, positive and persistent, 
gave her no peace. She was bidden to go 
to Robert of Baudricourt, who lived in the 
Castle of Vaucouleurs. He was the com- 
mander of the last fortress of these prov- 
inces, which still belonged to France. A 
brave man, a rough soldier, accustomed to 
battle-fields and danger, as unhkely to give 
heed to the visionary announcements of this 
young peasant maid as any man could be, 
still he was the one St. Joan had been told 
to seek as it was only through his assistance 
she could go to the King at Touraine, as 
she had been told by her Voices to do. 

By this time St. Joan had declared her 
mission to her parents, who thought her mad 
and refused to give her any assistance. But 
she relied on the promise of God, who, she 
felt assured, would send her the help which 



The Voices and St Joan's Mission 28 

she patiently awaited. Nor was she mis- 
taken, A cousin named Durand Laxart, 
who on account of his age she called "uncle, "^ 
had come to visit the family, became greatly 
impressed by what St. Joan told him and 
offered to take her whither she wished to go, 
if her parents would give their consent. 
This they finally did, though with reluctance, 
and Durand asked : 

**What is it you would have me do, Joan?" 

"Take me to Robert of Baudricourt," she 
answered, and they set forth. 

But when they had arrived at the Castle 
and Durand had told their errand, Robert 
exclaimed : 

"Your niece is mad. Give her a good 
beating and take her back to her father!" 

"It will be another time, then," said St. 
Joan, quietly, and they went their way home 
to Domremy. St. Joan, at least, was not 
discouraged, as she had been warned by the 
Voices that at first she would meet with many 



24 The Voices and St. Joan's Mission 

obstacles. But we have no record of a beat- 
ing! 

It was in December, 1428, or January, 
1429, that, accompanied as before by her 
cousin, St. Joan once more left the home she 
was never again to see, save perhaps in 
dreams on the battle-fields, or within the 
gloom of her prison cell. She may have had 
a presentiment that she would not return, 
for this time she wept and dwelt with linger- 
ing glance upon the home and friends she 
was leaving behind. From the beginning 
this journey seemed more hopeful than the 
last. Won by her simplicity and piety, peo- 
ple were kind to her on the way. They even 
offered her garments like those worn by the 
soldiers, or similar to them, that is to say, a 
tunic and short skirt, instead of breeches, 
which St. Joan, to the day of her death, re- 
fused to wear. She, no doubt, accepted 
them, for she was thus attired when setting 
forth to see the King. 



The Voices and St, Joans Mission 25 

"But are you not afraid?" they would ask. 
**It is a long way to Chinon, where the Dau- 
phin is. The roads are infested with enemies 
who will stop you." 

St. Joan replied : 

"I am not afraid of the men-at-arms ; the 
way lies open before me. The Lord is on 
my side. It is He who will prepare the 
paths which will lead me to the Dauphin. I 
was born for that." 

Disarmed by St. Joan's persistence and 
seizing at any hope in the dark days of dis- 
tress which were falling more and more heav- 
ily upon France, Robert of Baudricourt, 
at length consented to assist the young girl, 
whom people had already begun to call the 
"messenger of God." He wrote a letter to 
the King, gave her a sword, and bade her 
Godspeed. She was clothed in dark colors, 
doublet, hose, and a short skirt, with her hair 
cut short around her head, like a boy's. 
And thus, in God's name she began her jour- 



26 The Voices and St, Joans Mission 

ney to the King, victory, and glory, later, 
by a cruel turn of Fortune's wheel, to be 
succeeded by adversity, disgrace, imprison- 
ment, and martyrdom. 

The second account of the calling of St. 
Joan differs but slightly from the first. An 
intelligent girl, given to reflection, as St. 
Joan was from her infancy, would naturally 
hear and even see a great deal of the strife 
which was devastating the country. There 
was little else talked of in the villages, or 
around the evening hearth. Peddlers, pil- 
grims, and other travelers passing to and fro, 
would bring the news from day to day. The 
sorrows of her uncrowned King could not 
fail to touch St. Joan's gentle, sympathetic 
heart, which knew but three loves: that of 
her family, her religion, and her sovereign. 

It was in "the Oak Wood," on the edge of 
the village of Domremy, says this narration, 
that St. Joan first saw her Visions. This 
wood, where, feeding on the acorns that cov- 



The Voices and St, Joan's Mission 27 

ered the ground, the swine were also shel- 
tered, was infested by wolves, of which the 
children of the neighborhood were very much 
afraid. Sheep were also pastured not far 
away, and it is said that St. Joan had no 
fear of the wild animals, who never harmed 
her flock, whatever they might do to those 
of her companions. "The birds did perch 
upon her shoulders and her knees, feeding 
from her lap," says the old chronicle, * '^be- 
cause she was a child of God and the Blessed 
Mary, and the saints loved her. Once when 
she was thirteen," it goes on to state, "she 
ran with the other girls a foot-race, for a 
prize, a bunch of flowers. So easily she won, 
so fleetly she ran, that her feet seemed not 
to touch the ground. One of her compan- 
ions cried, *Joan, I see you flying close to 
earth.' When she returned home her 
mother scolded her for remaining away, and 
the Maid was sad. It was then that for the 
first time a bright and shining cloud seemed 



28 The Voices and St. Joan's Mission 

to pass before her eyes and from the clouds 
came a voice saying, * Joan, you must change 
your course of life and do marvelous deeds, 
for the King of heaven has chosen you to 
aid the King of France.' After this the ap- 
pearances continued day and night until St. 
Joan went away." 

"How did you know," inquired one of her 
questioners at her last trial, "the names of 
your heavenly visitors?" 

"Because they told me. First came St. 
Michael, and promised me the others, who 
afterward came. Angels were in their 
company. Their voices were gentle, beauti- 
ful, and sweet." 

The Maid had seen and heard them in the 
wood, while tending her sheep, when com- 
muning in solitude with her own soul, when 
in recreation with her companions. She had 
never doubted their reality, never suspected 
or feared they might be evil spirits deceiving 
her. 



The Voices and St. Joan's Mission 29 

The second and final attempt St. Joan 
made, according to this recital, was in De- 
cember, 1428, or January, 1429. She went 
first to the house of her cousin, Durand 
Laxart, who lived at Little Burey, between 
Domremy and Vaucouleurs. Discouraged 
by the passivity of Baudricourt, she left her 
cousin's house and repaired to Vaucouleurs, 
where she remained for three weeks at the 
house of Henri and Katherine Royer, who 
became very fond of her, persisting in their 
friendship to the end. 

"Her first gleam of hope," writes Lang, 
"appears to have come from a young man- 
at-arms, aged twenty-seven, who had some 
acquaintance with her father and mother. 
He was named Jean de Metz, or from his 
estate, Jean de Novelonpont. He was one 
of those who might have said: 

My harness is my house. 
My land beloved — strike. 



30 The Voices and St. Joan's Mission 

In heat and cold, by day or night. 
War is my pride — ^my life ! 

"But his heart was true to France and the 
rightful king. While the Maid dwelt with 
the Royers in Vaucouleurs, about the first 
or second week of February, 1429, Jean met 
her in 'her poor red woman's dress.' Said 
he to her, 'Ma niece, what are you doing 
here? Must the King be walked out of his 
kingdom and must we all be English?' St. 
Joan answered, 'I am come to a royal town 
to ask Robert of Baudricourt to lead me to 
the King. But Baudricourt cares nothing 
for me and what I say; none the less, I must 
be with the King by mid-Lent, if I wear my 
legs down to the knees. No man in the 
world — kings, nor dukes, nor the daughter 
of the Scottish King — can recover the King- 
dom of France, nor hath our King any suc- 
cor save from myself, though I would liefer 



The Voices and St, Joan's Mission 31 

be sewing beside my poor mother. For this 
deed is not convenient to my station, yet go 
I must, and this deed I must do, because my 
Lord so wills it." 

"^Who is your Lord?'" 

" 'Mj Lord is God,' " said the Maid. 

"He answered with an emotion that thrills 
us as we read. 'Then I, Jean, swear to you, 
Maid, my hand in your hands, that I, God 
helping me, will lead you to the King, and 
I ask when you will go?' " 

" 'Better to-day than to-morrow — ^better 
to-morrow than later.' " 

We read that Robert of Baudricourt, in 
company with a priest, visited her at the 
house of the Boyers, and it was probably 
after this visit that he decided to yield to 
her entreaties. Certain it is that soon after 
this St. Joan began her eventful journey. 
Friends whom she had made during her so- 
journ at Little Burey and Vaucouleurs, as- 



32 The Voices and St, Joan's Mission 

sembled to see her depart. And yet they 
were fearful of the perils she might encoun- 
ter on the way. 

"You should not go!" one said. "The 
roads are everywhere beset by men-at-arms." 
But she replied, "The way is made clear 
before me. I have my Lord, who makes the 
path smooth to the gentle Dauphin, for to 
do this deed I was born." 

She bent and kissed the sword. 
Bowed low to Baudricourt, 

Ready all ills to face. 
All perils to endure. 

To friends a parting smile. 
To Heaven an upward glance. 

Then, through the gathering dusk^ 
She rode away to France. 




JOAN SEES A VISION 



CHAPTER III 

ST. JOAN GOES TO THE KING 

WHAT manner of man was the un- 
crowned King of France, whom St. 
Joan, with her two travehng companions, 
and their servants, accompanied also by the 
King's messenger, journeyed one hundred 
and fifty leagues to see and counsel? His- 
tory, on that point, is divided. One account 
describes him as generous and kind, gentle 
and handsome, well-spoken and full of pity 
for the poor. 

His physical advantages, according to 
this chronicler, won him the favor of the 
people. He was fond of games, luxurious 
in his habits and devoted to St. Michael, 
St. Joan's own Archangel. Another nar- 
rator gives an entirely different picture, call- 

33 



34 St, Joan Goes to the King 

ing him "ugly, with gray, wandering eyes, 
nose thick and bulbous, knock-kneed and 
awkward." His portraits belie this unflat- 
tering description. However, it is not likely 
that if it were true, the painters who had 
the honor of portraying the features of the 
royal personage would have made the por- 
trait very lifelike. His traducers represent 
him as without ambition, hiding from his 
subjects in holes and corners, the tool of his 
ministers and the slave of his favorites. A 
life sacrificed in his behalf was a life thrown 
away. Both his friends and foes unite, 
however, in saying that he was indolent, and 
his conduct, subsequent to meeting with St. 
Joan of Arc, shows him to have been defi- 
cient in those qualities most to be admired 
in a king — ^bravery and loyalty to his friends. 
But St. Joan, blindly following the direc- 
tion of the heavenly messengers, in whom she 
imphcitly believed, paused not to weigh his 
defects or his virtues ; to her he was the de- 



St, Joan Goes to the King 35 

scendant of St. Louis, of the holy blood of 
France, God's chosen representative of jus- 
tice, honor, and loyalty. 

And to outward view, what manner of 
maid was she who sallied forth from Vau- 
couleurs upon her great adventure? Many 
statues have been made and many pictures 
painted of her, but none that seem to have 
been inspired by one who had seen her in 
life. Not all of these are beautiful, they 
differ greatly, according to the ideals of the 
artist who endeavored to reproduce her fea- 
tures in canvas or in marble. From all of 
them combined one might, with the eye of 
fancy, reproduce a composite picture in 
which the predominant traits would be inno- 
cence, dignity, sweetness, and an entire un- 
consciousness of self. 

It has been said by most of St. Joan's 
contemporaries — and we like to imagine that 
she was beautiful — that God, having chosen 
her for His messenger and fashioned her 



36 St, Joan Goes to the King 

soul so divinely, would also have endowed 
the shell of her divine spirit with beauty 
of form, and softness of color, with grace, 
slenderness, and a sweet dignity pervading 
all her looks and words. 

Says one who describes her: "Joan was 
beautiful in face and figure, with steady gray 
eyes, bright and smiling." Her hair, they 
tell us, was black and wavy. We can fancy 
the Ught breeze lifting it about her forehead 
as she sat under the old oak, or wandered in 
the garden of the deserted castle; we can 
see it just reaching her fine, straight shoul- 
ders, floating in the wind as she skimmed 
the surface of the greensward in the victori- 
ous races, or hastened, on flying feet, to res- 
cue from the brambles one of her beloved 
lambs; or imagine it falling — a dusky veil 
over her clear, unlined forehead and soft, 
smooth, olive cheeks — as she knelt, face 
buried in her hands, before Our Lady's altar 
in the little village church. 



St, Joan Goes to the King 87 

One of her own countrymen, Bastien Le- 
page, dissatisfied with the various and alto- 
gether dissimilar pictures of her, felt that he 
could paint a true portrait of the Maid of 
Arc. He has made her a homely figure, a 
peasant, clumsy but pleasing, a daughter of 
toil. But the mouth is firm and sweet, and 
the eyes are wonderful. She seems to be 
listening to the Voices that were constantly 
advising and beseeching her — looking not 
upon the outer world, but inwardly praying, 
reflecting, drinking in the visions which were 
her familiar companions, but which none but 
herself were permitted to see. This picture 
hangs in the Metropolitan Museum in New 
York, and those who are privileged to see it 
there, though they may wish that St. Joan ^ 
had been made more beautiful in face and 
form, cannot but admit that it portrays, be- 
yond all doubt, the exquisite purity of a soul 
untouched by sin. 

Gifted with perfect health, St, Joan's 



38 St. Joan Goes to the King 

presence diffused vitality wherever she went. 
Her manners were those of a lady rather 
than a peasant, though as the latter she was 
possessed of the sturdy independence and 
self-respect characteristic, to this day, of her 
race. No doubt from her familiar and gra- 
cious St. Margaret and St. Catherine she 
imbibed something of the spiritual poise and 
heavenly gentleness she always referred to 
in describing them. 

So it was that with head erect, shoulders 
thrown back, gray eyes gazing earnestly into 
the distance, raven hair now close-cropped 
under a tight black cap, and strong, if un- 
accustomed, hands firmly clasping the reins 
of her horse St. Joan went on her way 
through the night, arriving early next morn- 
ing at the town of St. Urbain. And then 
on to Fierbois, where there was a famous 
shrine of St. Catherine which St. Joan visited 
with great devotion. Thence to Chinon, 
where the King was lodged. 



St. Joan Goes to the King 39 

After breakfasting at the inn, with her 
usual determination and fearless spirit she 
repaired at once to the Castle. Baudricourt 
had written a letter to the King in her behalf, 
but evidently it had not yet arrived, for there 
was some difficulty in admitting her. 

Finally, after these preliminary objections 
had been overcome, she was told that the 
King had consented to see her, and again 
mounting her horse St. Joan proceeded to- 
ward the Castle. A story is related of this 
advance which, if true, would seem to be the 
first manifestation of the gift of prophecy 
which, as subsequent events have proven, she 
undoubtedly had received from God. 

Passing her on horseback, a man swore at 
and insulted her, using foul language. St. 
Joan looked at him calmly as she answered, 
"In God's name do you swear, and you so 
near death?" With these words she pursued 
her way; an hour later the man fell into the 
water and was drowned. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE KING SANCTIONS ST. JOAN 

NIGHT had fallen. Lights gleamed 
throughout the Castle; the men-at- 
arms received the little company at the gates. 
They marched through the courtyard to the 
wide open doors, when St. Joan dismounted. 
A cheerful fire burned in the broad chimney, 
a hundred torches in their iron sconces leaned 
from the scarred walls of somber gray. To- 
day that chamber is a roofless ruin, though 
the wall with the huge fireplace has not yet 
crumbled to decay. 

Into that assembly came St. Joan, modest 
but embarrassed by the presence of the King 
and his knights, clad in such gorgeous gar- 
ments as she had never seen. There were 
priests and prelates scattered among them 

41 



42 The King Sanctions St. Joan 

— counselors, men of law, scribes. It is said 
that the King was not present when she en- 
tered, but came in later, after the stir made 
by her entrance had subsided. 

Her cool gray eyes swept the assembly, 
then were lowered to the ground. Evi- 
dently St. Joan realized that the monarch 
was not among them. She made no attempt 
to speak until he entered, "When," says de 
Gaucourt, who was present, "she came for- 
ward with great humility and simplicity, and 
I heard those words which she spoke to the 
King, thus, 'Most noble Dauphin, I come 
from God to help you and your realm.' " 
The Dauphin drew her apart, and spoke with 
her long. It has also been said that St. Joan 
revealed to Charles her knowledge of a secret 
known only to himself and Almighty God, 
and thus gave proof to him of her exalted 
mission. This fact was brought forward at 
her trial, and she did not deny it. 

Charles, however, was not entirely carried 



The King Sanctions St. Joan 43 

away by her declaration. He appointed her 
to no task or office. She was sent to the 
Tower of Coudray, where she was placed 
under the care of Guillaume Bellier and his 
pious wife. A boy of fourteen or fifteen, 
Louis de Goutes, of poor but noble family, 
was given her for a page, which shows that 
she was treated with great respect. She was 
frequently summoned to the King, but spent, 
it is said, when alone, much of her time in 
prayer. 

Meanwhile the city of Orleans was being 
besieged by the English. They were not 
making progress but were ordered from 
England not to desist, though the Duke of 
Bedford, in command, thought their case 
hopeless. The French were making a gal- 
lant fight, increasing their forces from day 
to day. 

The young Duke d'Alen9on, hearing of 
St. Joan's mission and her eagerness to par- 
ticipate in the stirring events which were 



44 The King Sanctions St, Joan 

taking place, went to Coudray to see her, im- 
mediately gave his adherence to her cause 
and always, thereafter, remained her faithful 
friend. 

At last St. Joan was sent to Poitiers, 
where learned doctors asked her many ques- 
tions, to all of which she replied with her 
usual simple directness, sincere and un- 
abashed. Her character was investigated; 
for six weeks she was under the watchful 
questioning of churchmen, counselors and 
men-at-arms, who found nothing in it but 
records of purity, piety, humility, and devo- 
tion to the cause to which she believed her- 
self to have been called by God. 

After much deliberation it was decided 
that she should be sent to Tours, then under 
the direction of the Queen of Sicily, who 
was, also, the King's mother-in-law. Feel- 
ing that this was another step on the way, 
St. Joan rejoiceid at the change. It was at 
Tours that she received her suit of armor. 



The King Scmctions St, Joan 45 

in which her warlike assaults were wrought, 
while she was leading attacks on fortified 
places, standard in hand. 

Andrew Lang thus describes this armor: 
*'The armor included a helmet which cov- 
ered the head to its junction with the neck, 
while a shallow cup of steel protected the 
chin, moving on the same hinge as the salade 
— a screen of steel, which in battle was drawn 
down over the face to meet the chin-plate, 
and when no danger was apprehended, was 
turned back, leaving the face visible. A 
neck-piece, or gorget of five over-lapping 
steel plates, covered the chest as far as the 
breast-bone, where it ended in a point above 
the steel corselet, which itself apparently was 
clasped in front, down the center, ending at 
the waist. The hip joints were guarded by 
a band, consisting of three over-lapping 
plates of steel; below this, over each thigh, 
was a kind of skirt of steel, open for the 
freedom of riding. There were strong. 



46 The King Scmctions St. Joan 

thick shoulder-plates, yet one of these was 
pierced through and through by an arrow 
or cross-bow bolt, at close quarters, when 
St. Joan was mounting a scaling-ladder in 
an attack upon the English fort at the 
bridge-head of Orleans. 

*'The steel sleeves had plates with covered 
hinges, to guard the elbows ; there were steel 
gauntlets, thigh pieces, knee-joints, greaves, 
and steel shoes. The horse, a heavy-weight 
carrier, had his armor of steel, and the sad- 
dle rose high at the pummel and behind the 
back. A hucque, or cloak, of cloth of gold, 
velvet, or other rich material, was worn over 
the armor." 

A few words as to the famous mystic 
sword of the Maid. We only know what 
she related to the judges in 1431. "While I 
was at Tours, or Chinon, I sent for a sword 
in the church of St. Catherine of Fierbois 
where my Voices told me one could be found 
behind the altar. It was quickly unearthed. 



The King Sanctions St, Joan 47 

all covered with rust. It was marked with 
five crosses; and was not deep in the earth, 
as well as I can remember. When it was 
found the clergy rubbed it and the rust 
readily fell off. The man who wrought it 
was a merchant of Tours who sold armor. 
The clergy of Fierbois gave me a sheath, 
the people of Tours gave me two, one of 
red velvet, one of gold, but I had a strong 
leather sheath made for it." 

By the command of the Dauphin St. Joan 
was given a house and attendants, while Jean 
de Metz remained her faithful squire and 
was appointed custodian of her purse. This 
man was once fined a few sous for swearing, 
St. Joan was shocked at such a practice ; hers 
was a holy war, religion at the root of every- 
thing she did, therefore she bade Jean invoke 
God to banish profane words from his lips, 
for only thus, she said, not by fines or threats 
of punishment, could he succeed in preserv- 
ing them pure from blasphemy. At this 



48 The King Sanctions St, Joa/n 

time she announced that she had been told 
by St. Margaret and St. Catherine to take a 
standard. She was now become an impor- 
tant personage, she was to be placed in com- 
mand of a company, and it behooved her, 
said the Voices, to bear the standard of her 
cause. 

The standard, which St. Joan had ordered 
made according to her instructions, was of 
white linen embroidered with silk and em- 
belMshed with fleur-de-lys, and bearing the 
names JESUS, MARIA. Immediately 
under this inscription was depicted an image 
of God, seated amongst the clouds and hold- 
ing in His hand the globe, while two angels 
were represented, kneeling, offering Him a 
fleur-de-lys. On the other side were the 
arms of France, supported by two angels. 
In addition to the standard St. Joan had a 
small pennant, upon which was portrayed 
the Annunciation. St. Joan bore the stand- 
ard with her in every battle. Strange that 




THE TAKING OF ORLEANS BY JOAN OF ARC 



The King Sanctions St. Joan 49 

its white brilliancy did not attract her ene- 
mies to compass her death, but it did not. 
It was her safeguard and her shield. No 
man was to slay her in battle — ^neither did 
she ever slay. Her hands, free of human 
blood, were to remain always white. 



CHAPTER V 

ST. JOAN LEADS THE TROOPS TO VICTORY 

FROM Tours St. Joan was sent to Poitiers^ 
where she was questioned by a commis- 
sion of ecclesiastics who pronounced her 
"sane and holy," and advised that she be suit- 
ably conducted to Orleans, fully believing as 
they did in the genuineness of her call from 
God. 

First at Tourelles, later at Orleans, with 
an army of about twelve thousand men she 
led her troops to victory. For a long time 
the place seemed impregnable. But after 
the second assault, when the French had been 
twice driven back and the recall was about 
to be sounded, the Maid came to Dunois 
and begged him to wait yet a little while, 
retiring into a neighboring vineyard, where 

51 



52 St, Joan Leads Troops to Victory 

she prayed for more than a quarter of an 
hour. Flying her standard, St. Joan bade 
the troops follow her and plunged once more 
into the thick of the fight. Although she 
had been wounded earlier in the day she 
seemed as fresh as though the battle had just 
begun. Prayer had soothed and strength- 
ened her. The victory was all her own. 
"Within less than a week of her first dav un- 
der fire," writes the chronicler, "this girl of 
seventeen had done what Wolfe did on the 
heights of Abraham, what Bruce did at Ban- 
nockburn ; she had gained one of the *fif teen 
decisive battles' of the world." 

In spite of her painful wound she at once 
started for Chinon, where the King awaited 
her. But he met her at Tours, after having 
sent official despatches with news of the vic- 
tory to other towns. When St. Joan caught 
sight of him she dismounted and threw her- 
self at his feet, where she reverently saluted 
him. 



St, Joan Leads Troops to Victory 53 

Raising her up he leaned forward and 
with much emotion gravely kissed her fore- 
head. But she had not come to seek for 
compliments and at once informed him that 
she needed money and soldiers, and begged 
that he would permit her to accompany him 
to the city of Rheims. 

"Sire," she said to him, "it is time you were 
on the way to Rheims, there to be crowned." 

Charles hesitated. On one side was St. 
Joan- — on the other, advisers who told him 
it would be the wildest folly to count on a 
triumph at Rheims as long as the intervening 
town remained in control of the English. 

"Come, let us march against them, then," 
said the Maid, undaunted. 

And so they did, and from that day it was 
a conquering march to Jargeau, Meung, 
Beaugency, and the final victory of Patay. 
All this took place in seven days. On July 
17, the King was solemnly crowned. The 
ceremony began at nine o'clock in the morn- 



54i St, Joan Leads Troops to Victory 

ing and is thus described by Pierre de Beau- 
vais in a letter to the Queen of Sicily : 

"It was a wondrous sight to see that fair 
mystery, for it was as solemn and as well- 
adorned with all things thereunto pertaining 
as if it had been ordered a year before. 
First, all in armor, and with banners dis- 
played, the Marechal de Boussac with de 
Rais, Gravile, the Admiral and a great com- 
pany, rode to meet the Abbot, who bore the 
Sainte Ampoule (the holy chrism). They 
rode into the minster and alighted at the en- 
trance to the choir. The Archbishop of 
Rheims administered the coronation oath; 
he crowned and anointed the King, while all 
the people cried ''Noel, NoeV! and the 
trumpet sounded so you might think the roof 
would be rent. 

"And always during the mystery the Maid 
stood by the King, her standard in her hand. 
To see the goodly manners of the King and 
Maid was interesting, and she, kneeling, 



St, Joan Leads Troops to Victory 55 

weeping for joy, embraced his knees saying 
these words: 

" 'Gentle King, now is accomplished the 
will of God, who decreed that I should raise 
the siege of Orleans and bring you to this 
city of Rheims to receive this solemn sacring 
(anointing), thereby showing that you are 
the true King, and that France should be 
yours.' 

"And a wave of pity came upon all those 
who saw her, and many wept." 

Prophetic tears! Already the mists of 
treachery and ingratitude were rising, a nox- 
ious miasma, from the minds and hearts of 
those, who, jealous of her achievements and 
fearful of what she might accomplish in the 
future — ^thus upsetting their own plans — re- 
solved to crush and trample the lily that had 
so suddenly and fragrantly bloomed upon 
the lately arid soil of France. 

In three short months St. Joan had ful- 
filled the mission to which the heavenly 



56 St, Joan Leads Troops to Victory 

powers had dedicated her, and now, accord- 
ing to her own declaration, her work was 
done. Thus far her Voices had led her; 
thereafter what she accomplished and en- 
deavored to accomplish does not appear to 
have been by their command. On this 
slight foundation her enemies have tried to 
base the accusation that her mission was not 
from God, but was the delusion of a vision- 
ary, romantic girl. Others have maintained 
that, admitting her mission was from God, 
she proved false to her divinely-appointed 
vocation when, of her own volition, without 
guidance of the Voices, she continued her 
career after the coronation of the King at 
Rheims. 

Their reasoning is not good. God does 
not always manifest His will by signs. St. 
Joan had been obedient to it, had fulfilled to 
the letter what had been appointed her to 
do. Her prudence, modesty, and simplicity 
had not altered between the time when she 



St, Joan Leads Troops to Victory 57 

first met the King at Chinon and stood be- 
side him at the coronation, holding her spot- 
less standard in her hand. To the King, 
on the day of his anointing, she said, it is 
true: "Gentle King, now is accomplished 
the good pleasure of God, who willed that 
you should come to Rheims to receive your 
sacred anointing, showing that you are a 
true King, and the one to whom the Kjng- 
dom should belong." 

But France was not yet free. While, in 
the beginning, St. Joan had thought of noth- 
ing but retiring once more to her native vil- 
lage, after the deed she had been told to do 
was accomplished, she loved her fatherland 
and was willing, eager, to lay down her 
strength, health, life itself, to secure or aid 
in securing the freedom of her sorely-stricken 
coimtry. True, the Voices had not told her 
to go on; neither had they warned her to 
lay down her arms. Possibly St. Joan felt 
that were she to resist the entreaties of those 



58 St, Joan Leads Troops to Victory 

who begged her to continue to fight for 
France and freedom, she might be accused of 
cowardice. That, her valiant soul could not 
have borne. She felt it to be her duty to 
persevere in the career which had been thrust 
upon her. Certainly it was not from love of 
war-like things that she consented, as is al- 
leged by her own words: "And I would 
that it pleased God, my Creator, that I could 
return now, leaving my arms; and that I 
could go back to serve my father and mother 
in taking care of their flocks with my sister 
and brothers." 

The coronation of the King was but the 
means to an end ; by the restoration of peace 
to France, and the abolition of the numerous 
evils that always follow in the train of war, 
why turn from the plow now that the sow- 
ing of the seed promised a joyful harvest? 
Why turn her back upon her still distracted 
country, to retire to the peace and security 
of her native village? 



St, Joan Leads Troops to Victory 59 

It is recorded that as St. Joan stood there, 
rejoicing in the triumph of her rightful sov- 
ereign, herself the cynosure of thousands of 
admiring eyes, "she wept." Were they only 
joyful tears? Who can say that they were 
tears of unmixed happiness? Who can tell 
but that, having touched the height of fe- 
licity, the brave soul, fearing the future it 
felt itself obliged to face, did not tremble 
with a prophetic sorrow? If so, it was for 
a brief moment. Soon she was again ready 
for action. But a few days elapsed before 
she went forth to the relief of Compiegne, 
then besieged by the Burgundians. 



CHAPTER VI 

DEFEAT AND CAPTURE 

ST. Joan had ardently desired peace with 
Burgundy; with England there could 
be no peace until Burgundy had been pla- 
cated or subdued, and they — the English — 
had returned to their own country. 

On the very day of the coronation at 
Rheims an embassy came from the Duke of 
Burgundy, professedly to negotiate peace, 
but really to gain time to complete plans al- 
together opposite and to allow the advance 
from Calais to Paris of the Enghsh forces. 
The Duke, while professing a desire to make 
peace, was sending recruits from Picardy to 
the English army. 

Against the advice of St. Joan, the King, 
instead of marching to the rehef of Paris, 

61 



62 Defeat and Capture 

lingered at Rheims, conferring with the en- 
voys. Even after the treachery of the Duke 
had been made clear and they were on their 
way the King dawdled, hesitated, not march- 
ing on Compiegne, as would have been logi- 
cal, and finally making a truce of fifteen 
days with the Duke of Burgundy, who as- 
sured him that at the end of that time he 
might have Paris for his own. At least so 
he told the Maid, who was impatient of his 
slow progress. He may have been as credu- 
lous as he seemed or really indifferent as to 
the fate of his kingdom. Be that as it may, 
St. Joan was not of his mind. She had 
brought his army together and was now re- 
solved to hold it together in the face of fear- 
ful odds. 

"Although the truce is made," she wrote, 
"I am not content, and am not certain that I 
will keep it. If I do it will be merely for 
the sake of the King's honor, and in case 
they do not deceive the blood royal, for I will 



Defeat and Capture 63 

keep the King's army in readiness, at the end 
of the fifteen days, if peace is not made." 

The action of St. Joan, at this time, is re- 
markable. It will be seen by the tone of her 
letter that she considered herself responsible 
for the army of the King, as indeed she was. 
She was only seventeen, but she had long 
had familiar intercourse with supernatural 
beings, had fulfilled the promises made to 
her sovereign, and, apart from her heavenly 
intercourse, possessed a fund of sharp, com- 
mon sense, and knowledge of military tactics 
which he would have done well to respect 
and imitate. But St. Joan could not save 
her King against his will. If he had fol- 
lowed the advice of St. Joan all would have 
been well with him and France. She had 
not had much experience, but good judg- 
ment and a true insight were hers. And it 
was not in the hour of defeat, but in the hour 
of triumph, that her first discouragement 
came. 



64 Defeat and Capture 

St. Joan said to her judges: "It was in 
Easter week that I was on the ramparts of 
Melieu. St. Catherine and St. Margaret 
warned me that I should be captured before 
Midsimmier Day, that so it must needs be; 
nor must I be afraid or astounded but take 
all things well, for God would help me. So 
they spoke almost every day. And I 
prayed that when I was taken I might die in 
that hour without wretchedness of long cap- 
tivity. But the Voices said that so it must 
be. Often I asked the hour, which they told 
me not — had I known the hour I would not 
have gone into battle." 

There was a touch of human nature. St. 
Joan had believed implicitly in what the 
Voices had told her, therefore it had never 
occurred to her to doubt that she would be 
taken. Yet with a pathos which betrayed 
her youth and simplicity she says: "If I 
had known the hour I would not have gone 
into battle"! It was at Compiegne that St. 




JOAN OF ARC'S TRIUMPHANT ENTRY INTO ORLEANS 



Defeat and Capture 65 

Joan was left almost alone — her men, panic- 
stricken, having fled before the superior 
numbers of the Duke of Burgundy. 
There remained with her only the Squire 
d' Aulon, his brother , and her own two broth- 
ers, who had joined the army after the coro- 
nation of the King. Surrounded in the 
meadow which she had bravely refused to 
leave with her flying soldiers, she was 
dragged from her horse and declared a pris- 
oner. 

The soldiers, overjoyed at her capture, led 
the Maid to their quarters. She would have 
preferred death to surrender, but not so her 
captors. It is wonderful what fear she had 
already inspired in the hearts of the enemy, 
who in view of her humble origin, youth, and 
inexperience, considered her in league with 
the evil one, as her countrymen believed her 
favored by God. It was at this time that the 
rumor began to be spread that St. Joan was 
a witch, a sorceress, a woman possessed by 



66 Defeat and Capture 

devils. And the punishment of all such 
criminals was death — death at the stake. 

Already, in the minds of those who were 
later to be her accusers and judges, had the 
shadow of the maid's coming fate taken dark 
and ominous shape. From the first the 
English had declared their intention of burn- 
ing St. Joan alive, should she be captured. 
They meant to make quick wor'k of one 
who had in an incredibly short space of time 
gathered together the straggling forces of 
the rightful King of France, bravely sum- 
moned him to do the bidding of the Lord, 
which had been revealed to her, caused him to 
be crowned at Rheims, and later again reas- 
sured his wavering troops, whom, however, 
she could not hold, because of the folly and 
indifference of their sovereign. The Eng- 
lish did not propose that the foothold they 
had gained in France should be taken away 
from them by the hands of a girl deluded or 
bewitched, whichever she might be. 



Defeat and Capture 67 

It was Jean de Luxembourg who finally 
delivered the maid to the English, a man of 
her own blood, a Frenchman, but in the pay 
of the Duke of Burgundy and of the Eng- 
lish King. 

And it is here that the most infamous of St. 
Joan's persecutors appears upon the scene. 

In July, Pierre Cauchon, a former Fran- 
ciscan and Bishop of Beauvais, who for his 
unexemplary conduct had been expelled 
from his See, a coward and traitor, also in 
the pay of England, presented himself to 
Jean de Luxembourg, saying that St. Joan 
was a heretic and a sorceress, and should, on 
the payment of ten thousand pounds in gold, 
be delivered into the hands of the English 
King. False to his King, to his country and 
to his ecclesiastical oath, Cauchon hesitated 
at no treachery, violating every principle of 
honor and truth. 

While he was endeavoring to accomplish 
his end, St. Joan made an attempt to escape 



68 Defeat and Capture 

from the Tower of Beaurevoir, where she 
was confined. The rope by which she was 
descending broke and she fell to the ground, 
a distance of sixty feet. She was picked up, 
having suffered little injury from her fall, 
which would seem to have been certain death. 
But no ! For the valiant Maid was reserved 
a death more cruel and ignominious, a death 
second only in ignominy to that of her cruci- 
fied Saviour. 

After this she was confined in the Castle of 
Rouen, where she was kept constantly in 
chains. Cauchon was paid 750 livres (about 
one hundred and fifty dollars) for his infam- 
ous work, and, greatest injustice of all, ap- 
pointed to conduct her trial. 

The English, although they were now in 
possession of her body, pretended to wish to 
do St. Joan the justice of being tried by her 
own countrymen — well knowing that she 
had many enemies, since her short-lived day 
of triumph had passed. French priests and 



Defeat and Capture 69 

lawyers sat in judgment upon her, French 
witnesses condemned her, a French execu- 
tioner Ht the fires that surrounded her on the 
day of her immolation. 

And through it all her King kept silent; 
not one protest did he make against the in- 
famy of her trial, not once did he send her 
a word of comfort or counsel. From hence- 
forward it was decreed that St. Joan must 
travel her Calvary alone. The common peo- 
ple, who had been the first to believe in St. 
Joan, remained faithful to her to the last. 
At Tours every one, priests and laity, re- 
mained her friends and champions. Public 
prayers were offered for her deliverance, 
clergy and people marching in procession, 
walking barefoot. A prayer offered at that 
time in the far-off churches at Dauphiny has 
come down to us. 

"Almighty and everlasting Father, who, 
of Thine unspeakable mercy and marvelous 
goodness hast caused a maiden to arise for 



70 Defeat and Capture 

the uplifting and preservation of France and 
for the confusion of its enemies, and hast per- 
mitted her, by their hands, to be cast into 
prison, as she labored to obey Thy holy com- 
mandments, grant to us, we beseech Thee, 
through the intercession of the ever Blessed 
Virgin and all the saints, that she may be de- 
livered from their power without, and finally 
may accomplish the same work which Thou 
hast commanded her. Give ear. Almighty 
God, to the prayers of Thy people, and 
through the Sacrament of which we have 
partaken and by the intercession of the ever 
Blessed Virgin and all the saints, break in 
pieces the fetters of the Maid, who labored 
to perform the work which Thou hast ap- 
pointed her and now by our enemies is held in 
prison. Grant that she, by Thy goodness 
and mercy, may go forth to finish unhurt 
that which remains for her to accomplish, 
through Jesus Christ, Our Lord." 

From the tenor of this prayer it would ap- 



Defeat and Capture 71 

pear that Masses had been offered and the 
Holy Table approached by the people in 
supplication for the release of the Maid 
from the hands of her enemies. 



CHAPTER VII 

CAUCHON WEAVES A NET ABOUT ST. JOAN 

IT was in January that Pierre Cauchon be- 
gan to assemble his court. England, not 
wishing to incur the odium which might re- 
sult from it, gave Cauchon a free hand in 
the trial, in order that it might seem that she 
was being tried by her own countrymen. It 
is notable that no Englishman appeared 
there. St. Joan, who still had faith in her 
friendly compatriots, had asked in vain that 
some of her judges be taken from among 
them. 

She had been in captivity nine months, 
during which time she had been taken from 
place to place, subjected to all kinds of in- 
dignities which had, indeed, broken her bod- 
ily strength, but not her dauntless spirit. 

73 



74 Cauchon Weaves Net About Joan 

She had been asked, time and again, to re- 
sume her woman's dress, but she had refused 
to do so, because the warlike mission on which 
she had been sent "was not yet finished." 

When St. Joan appeared before her 
judges, men skilled in the law, in politics, 
in statecraft and duplicity, she did not shrink 
or vacillate. They saw before them a slen- 
der girl of nineteen, dressed in a page's suit 
of black, her short black hair framing her 
small pale face, lit up by a pair of large, 
gray, candid eyes, fearless, yet not bold, long 
lashes falling modestly on her smooth cheeks, 
or uplifted in firm denial of the accusations 
brought against her as the moments passed. 
Calm, cool, and undismayed, meeting each 
subtle question with the skill of a lawyer, or 
turning venom into harmlessness with the 
simplicity of a child who did not know the 
meaning of hypocrisy and treachery, the 
Maid founded her faith on the promises that 
had been made to her, her strength on the 



Cauchon Weaves Net About Joan 75 

whisperings of the Voices, which never de- 
serted her in this last great battle of her life. 

St. Joan was tried for witchcraft and not 
a single scrap of evidence was produced to 
show that she had ever had any dealing what- 
soever with the powers of darkness. She 
was condemned as a witch after this mockery 
of a trial, which proved beyond a doubt, even 
to her enemies, that her soul was white as 
snow. 

Required to take an oath, she answered 
with great prudence : 

"I do not know on what you wish to ques- 
tion me; perhaps you will ask me about 
things which I ought not to tell you." 

And again: "Of my father and my 
mother, and of what I did after taking the 
road to France, willingly will I swear; but 
of the revelations which have come to me 
from God to no one will I speak, save to 
Charles — my King." 

Poor St. Joan! Faithful to the last to 



76 Cauchon Weaves Net About Joan 

a cowardly monarch, who never by word or 
deed ever again acknowledged that she had 
served him well! 

"From whence do you come?" they asked. 

"Well you know from whence I come," 
she replied. "Nevertheless, I will tell you 
that Domremy is my birthplace and I am 
well-known there from that day." 

"Who taught you to pray?" 

"From my father and mother I learned 
my Pater, my Ave Maria, and my Credo. 
From whom else should I have learned them? 
And very well you know that there is not a 
child in Domremy who has not been taught 
to pray." 

"Repeat your Pater" 

There was a belief in those days that a 
witch could only say the Lord's Prayer back- 
ward. St. Joan knew this well, and al- 
though the recitation of the Lord's Prayer 
in the proper manner would have been, in the 
minds of many, a refutation of the charge of 



Cauchon Weaves Net About Joan 77 

witchcraft on her part, she refused to fall 
in with the purpose of her captors and re- 
plied with great adroitness: 

"Here is no place for the Lord's Prayer. 
In confession I will say it willingly." 

"What did you learn to do in Domremy?" 
was asked of her. 

St. Joan replied: 

"All that a woman should know of house- 
hold tasks I learned to do; to spin and sew. 
In sewing and spinning I fear no woman in 
Rouen." 

"From whence do your Voices come?" 

"They come to me from God." 

"Do you know if you are in the grace of 
God?" 

"If I am not, may God place me there; 
if I am, so may God keep me. I should be 
the saddest in all the world if I knew that I 
was not in the grace of God." 

These questions were not all asked the 
Maid at one time, but during the different 



78 Cauchon Weaves Net About Joan 

days of her trial. Once the judges tried to 
confuse her, speaking all together or inter- 
rupting each other. 

"Fair Sirs," she said, calmly, sweeping 
them with her steadfast eyes, "one after an- 
other, I pray you!" 

"What have you to say of our Lord the 
Pope, and who is the true Pope?" they in- 
quired. 

"Are there two Popes?" the Maid an- 
swered adroitly, and they were silent. 

Cauchon, commenting on her attempted 
escape from the Tower of Beaurevoir, for- 
bade her to leave the prison without permis- 
sion, under pain of being punished for the 
crime of heresy, though what heresy had to 
do with her desire of freedom it is difficult to 
imagine. 

St. Joan raised her head and answered him 
unfalteringly, as follows: 

"I do not accept such prohibition. If ever 
I do escape no one shall reproach me with 



Cauchon Weaves Net About Joan 79 

having broken my word to any one, whoever 
it may be. Is is not lawful and natural for 
a prisoner to wish to escape, and to try to 
do so?" 

"Did those of your party firmly believe 
that you were sertt by God?" was asked of 
her. 

"I do not know if they believed it. Re- 
fer to themselves in that matter," was the 
grave answer. "But even though they do 
not believe it, yet am I sent by God!" 

Once they inquired, 

"Does St. Margaret speak English?" 

She regarded her questioners gravely. 

"Why should she speak Enghsh to me, 
who do not understand it? Why should she 
speak English when she is not on the Eng- 
lish side?" 

We fancy a smile must have sought the 
lips of some of her sober-minded accusers at 
this astute reply. 

There were six public examinations at the ^ 



80 Cauchon Weaves Net About Joan 

trial. As one of her jailers, Massieu, was 
leading the Maid from the coiui;room to the 
prison they passed the chapel of the Castle. 
The Host was in the Tabernacle, and St. 
Joan begged leave to "kneel and adore her 
Lord." Permission was granted her. It 
was done several times. A satelhte of Cau- 
chon, d'Estivet, more cruel even than his 
master, once saw the incident and attacked 
Massieu for having permitted the favor. 
Thenceforth she was not allowed the privi- 
lege, and always as they reached the chapel 
she would inquire in a sweet, low voice, 

" Is not the Body of Our Lord in the 
Chapel?" And to the affirmative reply she 
would bend her head in adoration as she 
passed, comforted and soothed that her God 
was there. 




THE CORONATION OF CHARLES VII AT RHEIMS 



CHAPTER VIII 



ST. joan's second trial 



As Cauchon had not been able to convict 
St. Joan either of being an impostor or 
one in league with the evil one, her answers 
during the trial having made her many 
friends and brought over to her side men who 
had previously doubted her, he was at a loss 
how to strengthen the cauise of the prosecu- 
tion. 

He was resolved to destroy the Maid un- 
der any pretext, and finally determined to 
bring against her the charge of heresy and 
rebellion against the Church. To this end 
he proceeded to have her questioned pri- 
vately, as the judgment of her hearers at 
her public trial had been favorable to her 
cause. To have been accused of insubordi- 
nation to the Church by two such men as 

SI 



82 St Joan's Second Trial 

Cauchon and d'Estivet, his colleague, would 
have been from their previous conduct not a 
surprising thing. But not for one moment 
did St. Joan confound these arch-deceivers, 
who had no authority from the Church, with 
the governing powers of the great body of 
which she was a member. To any one who 
observes the fearlessness of her answers, 
their courage and coolness, joined to the 
shrewdness with which she parried and con- 
fronted their foolish and irrelevant questions, 
must go far toward convincing the mind of 
the reality of her divine mission. 

Fearful of the judgment of honest men 
against him, Cauchon had commanded the 
attendance of Brother Isambard de la 
Pierre, a Franciscan of piety, honesty, and 
good repute. This decision of Cauchon re- 
sulted in St. Joan's favor, as Brother Isam- 
bard at once became convinced of her abso- 
lute sincerity, by reason of the extraordinary 
manner in which she replied to all the ques- 



St. Joan's Second Trial 83 

tions, which were selected with a view of 
confusing and condemning her. He be- 
came her very good friend and remained 
so until her last hour. 

Said he, in his declaration after the Maid's 
death, "Such difficult, crafty, subtle ques- 
tions were put to poor Joan that the great 
clerks and learned doctors present would 
have found it hard to answer them." 

"Are you willing to submit to the 
Church?" asked Cauchon. 

"What is the Church?" answered wise St. 
Joan, with another question. "So far as 
it is you I will not submit to your judgment, 
because you are my deadly enemy." 

"Would you submit to the judgment of 
the Pope?" 

"Take me to him," replied St. Joan, "and 
I shall be content." 

But that was the farthest thing from 
Cauchon's thoughts. Brother Isambard, 
who saw that whatever happened, St. Joan 



84 St. Joan's Second Trial 

would never be justified as long as she re- 
mained in the hands of her enemy, advised 
her to submit to the General Council, then 
sitting at Basle, which, he assured her, would 
do her justice. 

"Oh!" she replied. "If at that place 
there are any who are on our side I am quite 
willing to submit to the Council of Basle." 

"Hold your tongue, in the devil's name!" 
shouted Cauchon, and told the clerk to make 
no note of her answer — which would have 
been in her favor, as it evinced her wilhng- 
ness to submit to the highest authority. 

Whereupon St. Joan cried : 

"What is for me you never write down 
— ^what is against me you never fail to write. 
I appeal — " 

"She appeals," wrote the clerk — and was 
ordered to write no further. And it stands 
thus on the records to this day. 

"Do you believe in the Church militant?" 
they asked her. 



St, Joan's Second Trial 85 

"What do you mean by that?" answered 
the simple Maid, unskilled in aught of re- 
ligion but the science of prayer. 

"Do you believe in the Church triumph- 
ant?" they inquired, seeking still more to 
confuse her. 

Again St. Joan asked them to make their 
meaning clear. When they had explained, 
with her accustomed wariness, fearing some 
trick, she besought them to allow her to con- 
sider it until the afternoon. 

Again the merciless questioning was re- 
sumed. 

"Do you know if St. Catherine and St. 
Margaret hate the English?" they asked her. 

"They love what God loves: they hate 
what God hates." 

"Does God hate the English?" 

"Of the love or hate God may have for 
the English or of what He will do for their 
souls, I know nothing, but I know quite 
well they will be put out of France, except 



86 St. Joan's Second Trial 

those who shall die there, and that God will 
send victory to the French against the Eng- ' 
lish." 

"Was God for the Enghsh when they 
were prospering in France?" 

"I do not know if God hated the French ; 
but I believe He wished them to be defeated 
for their sins, if they were in sin." 

They could not confound her. 

Holy Week was approaching. She 
begged permission to hear Mass on Palm 
Sunday and to receive the Holy Eucharist 
on Easter Day. It was not granted her. 
That afternoon, Isambard de la Pierre, ac- 
companied by Brother Guillaume Duval and 
Jean de la Fontaine, went to the prison to 
give her some advice. The English Earl of 
Warwick, who had been one of the attend- 
ants at the private trial and had observed 
that Brother Isambard had endeavored to 
help St. Joan in her answers, by nudging 



St, Joan's Second Trial 87 

her with his elbow and making signs to her, 
happened to be near. 

"Why did you touch that wicked person 
this morning, making many signs?" he ex- 
claimed. ''Mort bleu, villain! If I see you 
again taking trouble to deliver her and to 
advise her for her good, I will have you 
thrown into the Seine!" 

After that Brother Guillaume fled to his 
convent and remained there, and Brother 
Isambard, whether through fear of what 
might happen to himself, or thinking it bet- 
ter for St. Joan's cause that she should not 
provoke her enemies, kept a close silence. 
But he did not desert her until she needed 
him no more. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE NET GROWS STEONGER 

ON the 23d of May, St. Joan was again 
summoned before the Court. It had 
been decreed by her enemies that she must 
die. She had been tried for sorcery and 
heresy, and neither charge had been proven 
against her. A paper was drawn up, in 
which, in obscure language, she was made to 
say that she had deceived her countrymen in 
regard to her mission, and that her Voices 
were illusions. 

The paper which she was asked to sign, 
and which she did sign under threat of tor- 
ture and death, was not, many witnesses 
have averred, the one so carefully prepared 
by her so-called judges. That to which St. 
Joan had meant to put her signature, and 



90 The Net Grows Stronger 

which had been read to her, said only, in 
substance, that she submitted in all things 
to the Church. The other paper which was 
given her to sign and which she had never 
heard read, was much longer and contained 
a specific denial of all her claims to having 
been a messenger of God. 

But, whether under threat of death by 
fire, worn out, ill, persecuted by her enemies 
and deserted by those who owed her deepest 
gratitude, St. Joan did not sign the orig- 
inal with a knowledge of its contents. 

The fact must never be forgotten that the 
signature was extorted from her by threats 
and that as soon as the Maid realized what 
she had done she made all the amends in her 
power by declaring that she had been de- 
ceived and knew not the importance of what 
she was doing when she put the final seal 
on the triumph of her enemies. 

We will not admit that she did put her 
signature to the paper save under the belief 



The Net Grows Stronger 91 

that it was something different from what 
it really was ; but, for the sake of argument, 
if such were the ease, is hers the only incident 
in history where one of the chosen of God 
has lapsed and returned again to His love 
and service? The Old Testament contains 
numerous similar instances. The saints are 
human; if they were angels where would 
be the victory over passions and inclinations, 
with which angels never struggle because 
they are free from all that clogs and hampers 
heavenly perfection? 

In the New Testament the same thing 
occurred, and the same thing will occur again 
until the end of time. Was it not Peter, 
the first of the apostles, who denied the 
Saviour — Peter, the Rock on which He built 
His Church, against which the gates of hell 
have never prevailed and never shall prevail? 
Was not his repentance all the more glorious 
for that reason, the record of his subsequent 
life, tear-furrowed cheeks, and heroic death 



92 The Net Grows Stronger 

all the more grand? We are to believe that 
out of the thousands who followed Our Lord 
during the three years of His mission on 
earth He chose for His apostles the twelve 
most worthy to be His helpers and suc- 
cessors. How many of them followed Him 
to Calvary? Only one — the loving and be- 
loved St. John. Yet did they not all, after 
the Holy Ghost came upon them, go forth 
bravely to preach His Gospel, whom they 
had for a time feared to follow except in 
the darkness and afar off; and in His name, 
were not all — except St, John — ^martyred at 
last? 

On May 9th the judges proposed to put 
St. Joan to the torture if she would not 
confess. When she heard of their plans she 
must have had a fear and presentiment that 
she would not be able to hold out against 
them, for she said: 

"In very truth, if you were to cause my 
limbs to be torn from my body and my soul 



The Net Grows Stronger 93 

to be driven out I would say nothing differ- 
ent. And if I should say something differ- 
ent I should always be obhged to tell you 
afterward that you had made me say it by 
force." 

They had promised the Maid that if she 
would sign the paper they would release her 
from her English captors and place her in 
the hands of the Church. But this was not 
done. When Cauchon was reminded of this 
promise he brutally waved it aside and said, 
"Take her back whence you brought her!" 
One of the crimes charged against St. 
Joan — and her enemies made it a very 
heinous one — ^was that she had worn man's 
attire and persisted in wearing it, against 
the teachings of the Church. They made 
no such objection to her garments while she 
was fighting in the field and leading the 
King's troops to victory. Her refusal to 
put on woman's dress was well-founded. 
Thrown into a gloomy prison where there 



94! The Net Grows Stronger 

were only men to guard and tend her, she 
persisted in retaining her mihtary garb as 
a means of safety and protection. She had 
promised to resume the dress of a woman as 
soon as she should be taken from the com- 
pany of men and soldiers, but she was not 
set at liberty; therefore, as her judges had 
not fulfilled their promise she was absolved 
from hers. On Sunday morning the Maid 
said to her guards, 

"Unchain me, that I may rise!" 
One of them then took away her woman's 
dress, which had been placed near her, and 
put in its place her former garments, saying 
to her, "Get up!" 

"Sir," St. Joan repUed, "you know I have 
promised to put on my woman's garments, 
and that I am forbidden any more to dress 



as a man." 



After a long argument, and seeing that 
unless she wished to lie in bed permanently 
she must obey, St. Joan finally resumed the 



The Net Grows Stronger 95 

dress of a man, which she wore thereafter, 
being unable to persuade her guards to pro- 
vide her with any others. And yet, in the 
final summing up of the charges against her, 
Cauchon laid stress on the circumstance, say- 
ing that in spite of her promise she declined 
to wear woman's clothes. He did not ex- 
plain, however, that his part of the agree- 
ment had not been fulfilled. 

St. Joan spent Easter Day in her cell, 
although she had been promised that she 
might hear Mass, on the foregoing condition. 
The next morning Cauchon paid her a visit, 
to find her ill and in bed. Her brave young 
spirit had at last broken under the indigni- 
ties and injustice to which she had been sub- 
jected; she was suffering from severe nausea 
and fever. 

Warwick and Beaufort, fearing that she 
might die in prison, hastened to send her 
medical attendance. 

"Do your best for her," commanded the 



96 The Net Chows Stronger 

Earl, "for my King would on no account 
have her die a natural death. He bought 
her dear and holds her dear; she shall die 
by the law and be burned." 

"Why be burned — ^why die?" whispered 
some faithful spirits to one another. "What 
hath she done — what hath been proven 
against her?" But they could not speak 
their whispers aloud. 

Cauchon made a long speech of exhorta- 
tion. When he had finished, St. Joan said: 

"I thank you for what you say to me for 
my salvation. It seems to me, seeing how 
ill I am, that I am in great danger of death. 
If it be that God do His pleasure on me, 
I ask of you that I may have confession 
and my Saviour, and that I may be put in 
blessed ground." 

"Do you believe that the Holy Scriptures 
have been revealed by God?" asked the hypo- 
critical Cauchon. 

"Why weary me forever with the same 



y 



The Net Crrows Stronger 97 

questionings? You know it well— J know it 
well." 

They called her a heathen and a "Sara- 



cen." 



St. Joan rephed from her bed of anguish, 
"I am a good Christian; I have been bap- 
tized. I shall die a good Christian. I love 
God and serve Him. I wish to maintain 
the Church with all my might." 

Could anything have been more clear, 
more fearless, niore positive? 

Baffled, they sought to torture her by re- 
fusing her the consolation of the Sacraments. 
It was the worst thing they could do to the 
poor, suffering body and faithful soul. 
They turned and left her to the rough min- 
istrations of her jailers. 



CHAPTER X 

FALSE CHARGES 

1r may be well here to enumerate some of 
the false and ridiculous charges that were 
brought against St. Joan, nearly all of which 
contradicted one another and were used at 
the pleasure of her accusers, both for and 
against her. 

She would not renounce her belief that 
her Saints and Voices were good; she could 
not — for they to her were realities. Even 
supposing they were illusions, St. Joan was 
not to be blamed for thinking otherwise; 
many sincere and truthful persons have been 
the victims of illusions. That does not con- 
stitute a crime. 

She believed herself given to understand 

99 



100 False Charges 

and predict future events — neither was that 
a crime. 

St. Joan wore a male dress, and while 
wearing it received the Sacraments. When 
she was willing to renounce it for that of a 
woman, she was not furnished with femi- 
nine garments. That was not her fault. 

This "Saint of the Fatherland" used the 
words Jesus Maria, as her motto, and said 
the course of the war would show which 
party was right. From the beginning the 
name of the Lord has been the watchword 
of His children, why then, in the case of 
St. Joan, who time and again professed her 
adherence to the Church, should it be called 
blasphemy? 

She obeyed her Saints in many things, 
but toward the end not in all — and yet she 
was condemned both for obeying and dis- 
obeying them. 

She refused to submit herself to the judg- 
ment of the Church; which was untrue, for 



Fabe Charges 101 

she was refused permission to appeal to the 
Council of Basle, which she was eager to do* 

All of this was the farce which prefaced 
the fearful, closing tragedy. 

It was decided that St. Joan must die; 
a decision, which in the hearts of her perse- 
cutors had been made as soon as she was 
captured. The majority were villains, the 
best of them cowards, afraid to utter the 
conviction that lay in the bottom of their 
hearts. 

The Maid was ordered to appear at the 
Old Market of Rouen on May 30th. It 
did not take long to read the charges against 
her, futile as they were, nor to pronounce 
her doom. St. Joan heard them in a sort 
of stupor. We may reasonably infer that 
until this moment she had hoped, ^:nd placed 
some reliance, however slender, upon the 
shifty promises that had been made her. 

When all was finished she turned to Cau- 
chon, and cried out boldly: 



102 False Charges 

"Bishop, through you I die, wherefore I 
arraign you before God!" The cry has fol- 
lowed him adown the centuries, setting the 
seal upon his impiety and infamy. 

Alas! Poor St. Joan of Arc! Where 
. now were the Voices that bade her hasten 
to the succor of her King that he might be 
victorious over his enemies and be crowned 
at Rheims? Their mission was finished 
when that part of St. Joan's appointed task 
was ended; it is but logical to believe that 
whatever she did afterward was done inde- 
pendently of them. 

All that was left for her Saints to do was 
to sustain the Maid's courage until the last 
dark ordeal should be over; to strengthen 
and comfort her in the dreadful termination 
of her brave young life, to receive her soul 
in Paradise when the torture and fire should 
have completed their work. 

Where now were the admiring multitudes 



False Charges 103 

that followed the fearless Maid's footsteps 
from Orleans to Rheims? Hidden behind 
their shutters with fearful, timid or eager, 
greedy eyes to deprecate or approve the 
fate which had been adjudged her. 

Where the men-at-arms that had followed 
at their beloved leader's bidding to the fatal 
field where her enemies had captured her? 
Powerless or unwilling to make an effort in 
her behalf; passing her prison doors with 
hurrying feet and averted eyes, lest perhaps 
they might catch a sight of her behind the 
barred window, and to her silent look of 
supplication be suspected of making her a 
hopeful signal or a glance of friendly com- 
passion. 

Where now the King whose supremacy 
she had gone forth to proclaim and did pro- 
claim, to whom she had given her heart's 
best fealty and homage, who owed to her 
his Kingdom and his throne? There was 



104 False Charges 

not a sign that he remembered her existence, 
much less her glorious deeds. 

The fiat had gone forth: the Maid of 
Domremy must die. 



CHAPTER XI 

ST. joan's execution 

AT dawn on the morning of the 30tn of 
May, 1431, when the guardian of the 
night went through the streets of Rouen, 
crying, "Awake, all ye who sleep! Pray 
Gk)d for sinners!" the city was already astir. 
Men and women came to their windows and 
gathered upon the doorsteps, looking at one 
another with this grim salutation: "She 
dies to-day!" 

Permission had been granted her at the 
last to receive the Sacraments and the priest, 
Martin Ladvenu, who was to hear her con- 
fession, was deputed to call her from her 
last earthly sleep. 

"Awake, Joan," he cried. "Awake, Joan. 
This day you are to be burned at the stake!" 

105 



106 St, Joan's Execution 

Affrighted, the poor girl sprang up in 
her bed. 

"Alas!" she said. "Why treat my body 
so horribly? It is pure, why consume it 
and reduce it to ashes? Ah! I would rather 
be beheaded seven times over than be thus 
burned !" 

Although he who heard her last confes- 
sion was one of those who had condemned 
her, he said, later, that in the light which 
at that solemn moment had penetrated his 
soul, struck by what passed her pure lips, 
he believed her to be a saint. 

Her confession ended, St. Joan, humbly 
kneeling, received holy communion with 
such recollection that all who surrounded 
her were filled with emotion. Many sobbed 
and cried, intermingling their tears with the 
prayers for the agonizing. 

"Lord, have mercy on her! Holy Mary, 
pray for her! Saints and angels, intercede 
for her !" And when, a short time later, the 



St, Joan's Execution 107 

cart which bore her to the place of execution 
passed through the streets, crowds of people 
who lined the way fell on their knees and 
cried aloud, *'0 Lord, have mercy on her!" 

All at once a man pierced the throng, and 
threw himself before St. Joan. It was Loy- 
seleur, a miserable man, who, under the plea 
of compassion for St. Joan, had played the 
part of a spy. Full of remorse he begged 
her pardon, but even while St. Joan, smiling 
benignly, sweetly made the sign of forgive- 
ness, the English guards drove him away 
under threats of instant death. 

At length the couch of death was reached 
^ — a couch composed of immense pieces of 
wood, saturated with oil. When Joan per- 
ceived it she shrank back, crying out, 
"Rouen! Rouen! Wilt thou, then, be my 
last dwelling-place?" 

If her judges had had a spark of mercy 
they would speedily have put an end to her 
misery, but they once more began to utter 



108 St. Joan's Eocecution 

their long-winded exhortations and oft-re- 
peated accusations against the hopeless vic- 
tim of bigotry, jealousy, and perfidy. And 
while they thus discoursed, poor St. Joan's 
courage began to falter. Human nature 
could endure no more. A self-imposed 
martyr, eager for the sacrifice, might, no 
doubt, have bravely preserved his fortitude 
through all the long rehearsal of false 
charges and preachments. But St. Joan 
was not such a martyr. She did not want 
to die, and almost to the end believed that 
her judges would yield her to the protection 
of the Church, to which she had openly and 
willingly proclaimed her unfaltering loyalty. 
For a brief space the woman prevailed 
over the martyr! St. Joan gave vent to the 
most heart-rending lamentations, declaring 
her innocence and imploring mercy. But as 
the executioners came forth to lead her to 
the pile, her strength and courage began 
to return, as if in response to her agonized 



St, Joan's Execution 109 

prayers to Heaven. With head erect, her 
voice grown stronger, in the face of the vast 
multitude, she cried aloud: 

"It is then ordained that I must die. 
Nevertheless, I am not a sinner. Good, 
simple people, I am innocent. Be ye wit- 
nesses that I die innocent. I beseech you, 
men, women, little children, that you will 
remember me in your prayers and intercede 
for my salvation. Priests, I beg that you 
give me the offering of a Mass for the re- 
pose of my soul. If there be any here whom 
I have wronged I ask their pardon. If 
there be any who have wronged me, I for- 
give them." 

She asked for a cross. An English sol- 
dier made one from a stick and gave it to 
her. St. Joan took it, kissed it fervently 
and placed it in her bosom. But that was 
not enough. She wished for the image of 
her Saviour. Brother Isambard, who had 
followed her all the way, handed her a cruci- 



110 St, Joan's Execution 

fix, which she pressed long and fervently 
to her throbbing heart. 

"Oh," she cried, "let me kiss those feet 
which were so cruelly pierced, and this poor 
body, wounded for our sins. Holy Virgin, 
sweet Lady of Paradise, by the memory of 
the sufferings of thy Son, have pity on me!" 

The executioner applied the torch. At 
the sight of the ascending flames St. Joan 
uttered a loud cry. Then, as Brother Isam- 
bard still continued at her side, with that 
kindness and thoughtfulness for others 
which had always distinguished her and 
which she was still to display almost in her 
very last moment, the Maid said to him : 

"Brother, depart from me or you will be 
burned! But go beyond there, where I can 
see you, and hold up the crucifix before me, 
that I may still see it at the moment of my 
death." 

He obeyed her, and seeking an elevation 
directly behind the front rows of spectators. 



St, Joan's Eocecution 111 

he held up the cross to her view and venera- 
tion. 

Ahnost at the final moment the irrepressi- 
ble Cauchon approached her, saying: 

"Joan, I come to offer you my final exhor- 
tation — " 

But St. Joan interrupted him, as she had 
already done once before in the prison. 

"Bishop," she said, "through you I die." 

The flames rose higher and higher. 

"Water — Holy Water!" she was heard to 
exclaim. And then her voice grew calm, as 
through the rapidly enveloping smoke her 
form was hardly to be seen. Amid the 
seething fires the Maid's prayers ascended 
to the throne of a merciful and pitying 
Saviour. The gates of Paradise were 
opening to her. Was not this the deliver- 
ance, the great victory her Voices had prom- 
ised her — ^this victory over sin and sorrow^ 
injustice, persecution, and death? 

Once more, from the very heart of the 



112 St. Joan's Execution 

flames, St. Joan caUed out, brave, un- 
daunted, faithful to the end. 

"My Voices were from God. . . . My 
[Voices did not deceive me — " No more 
doubt, no more fear — ^now she knew. 
** Jesus! Jesus!" 

It was St. Joan's last cry. In His name 
she had gone forth from her peasant home 
to the relief of France; in His name she 
had kept the faith of her soul; in His name 
she had suffered and endured until the end. 

The flames roared more fiercely; a sud- 
den outpouring of dense, black smoke con- 
cealed her entirely from the view of the 
spectators. When it rolled away the form 
of St. Joan was no longer to be seen. 

In His name she had rendered up her 
pure soul to God. 




THE DEATH OF JOAN OF ARC 



CHAPTER XII 

THE FRUITS OF ST. JOAN's MARTYRDOM 

THEY threw her ashes into the Seine — 
swallowed up in the waters that isweep 
down to the immensity of the sea. Twenty- 
five years later the findings of her trial were 
reversed, the treachery and perfidy of her 
judges revealed, and the arch-traitor, Cau- 
chon, held up to the detestation not only of 
his own age but of all ages to come. It was 
a late compensation for all she had suffered, 
it is true, but it cleared her reputation in the 
minds of those who*had doubted her sincerity 
and piety, and served to establish her sanc- 
tity more fully in the minds of her friends. 
Since that time her memory has lived and 
been justified not only in song, legend, and 
story but in the historical written testimony 

113 



114 Fruits of St J Gait's Martyrdom 

wrung from the lips of her accusers as 
weapons for her destruction. 

Ahnighty God, who uses the weak ones 
of the earth to confound the strong, whose 
supreme wisdom brings good out of evil, de- 
creed that these very weapons should be her 
defense and glory. But for her enemies St. 
Joan might have soon been forgotten — a 
saint in heaven, as the Church now recog- 
nizes her, but numbered among the thou- 
sands who dwell in Paradise, chosen souls 
whose holiness is known to God alone. 

True, the siege of Orleans and the 
triumphal march to Rheims would still be 
recounted in the pages of history, a few say- 
ings of the Maid who was noted as speaking 
but little might still be preserved, but the 
volimie of her answers, which reveal to us a 
soul wondrously illumined by divine grace, 
would never have existed. The favored 
children of God, those whom He chooses 
as instruments of His justice, mercy, or 



Fruits of St, Joan's Martyrdom 115 

glory, more often than otherwise have to 
pay dearly in tears of blood, in persecution 
and sacrifice, for the honor of that choice. 

If the ingratitude and injustice of man 
had not made of her a martyr, no doubt she 
would have passed into obscurity when her 
appointed work was done. The compan- 
ions of her childhood, unlettered peasants of 
her native' village, Domremy, the troops; 
who followed her banner, the burghers of 
Orleans, the princes and courtiers and high 
men-at-arms, the faithful friar who stood by 
her at the stake, the executioner who fired 
the funeral pyre — all these would have 
passed away and none of the precious recol- 
lections they had of the Maid would have 
been left on record. 

It was the bitterness of St. Joan's foes 
that provided against this. Investigation 
of their iniquitous acts called forth a mass 
of damaging testimony, deposed upon oath, 
each one of which brings a converging ray 



116 Fruits of St. Joans Martyrdom 

of light to shine upon their perfidious hate 
and all but unparalleled injustice, as it does 
upon the character of the modest, gentle 
Maid of Domremy. 

It reveals to us a saintliness and simplicity 
in childhood, a saintliness and modesty in 
the courts of kings, a saintliness and dignity 
in the rough camps of war, and a saintli- 
ness and heroism in the hour of death which 
has not been surpassed in the history of 
mankind. 

During the past dreadful war, devotion to 
St. Joan of Arc, not then canonized but al- 
ready pronounced Blessed, was renewed in a 
remarkable degree. Medals struck in her 
honor were carried by Protestants as well as 
Catholics as a protection against danger and 
death. It has been asserted many times that 
soldiers on the field were granted a vision 
of the Maid of France; the victory of the 
Mame has time and again been attributed to 
her intercession. 



Fruits of St, Joans Martyrdom IIT 

St. Joan has still work to do. She will 
never grow cold to the sons of her native 
land who so fervently besought her in their 
terrible hour of need; she will never forget 
to plant the lilies of France in the hearts 
of the little children, who are to be the Chris- 
tian men and women of the future. It will 
be hers to garner the spiritual harvest of her 
country's need, to fill the souls of her coun- 
trymen with the fire of Christian charity, to 
bring back to France — eldest daughter of 
the Church — in full and entire completeness 
her old inheritance of Faith. 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE LESSON OF ST. JOAN's LIFE 



WHAT are the virtues which the hfe of 
St. Joan of Arc presents to our imi- 
tation? They are many. 

First, her simphcity, which, when foun(fed 
on religion, is a virtue most priceless — one 
which has always distinguished the holiest 
souls. St. Joan knew herself to have heen 
chosen for a mission, wonderful in itself, but 
still more wonderful in that an inexperienced 
and unlettered peasant maiden should have 
been selected to do that which the great ones 
of earth had failed to accomplish. No doubt 
the Maid marveled at her visions and Voices, 
but she accepted and believed them, even as 

her dear Mother, Our Lady, had meekly^ 

119 



120 The Lesson of St. Joan's Life 

avowed herself to be the handmaid of the 
Lord. 

Second, her discretion. St. Joan was but 
a child when the Voices first came to her. 
It would have been natural for her, even 
though she had been warned against it, to 
have revealed what she had seen and heard 
to some of her companions, to her mother, 
most likely of all to the priest of the village. 
But, hke the Virgin Mother, she "kept all 
these things in her heart," until the time 
had arrived to act upon them, in behalf of 
her country and her king. 

Third, her piety, cheerful and unobtru- 
sive. There is a piety, sincere no doubt, but 
of a nature that can almost be called offen- 
sive. It is that which goes about with a face 
severe and averted from all things worldly, 
even the most innocent pleasures. Not such 
was the piety of St. Joan. She loved to 
pray, in- the church before the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, at her bedside night and morning, in 



The Lesson of St, Joan's Life 121 

the grounds of the old chateau where she 
frequently walked, telling her beads, and 
where, it is said, the divine call first camie to 
her. But, though never boisterous, she was 
always cheerful, even gay with her compan- 
ions, joining in their innocent sports, shar- 
ing their labors and their rambles, making 
herself one with them in every way. 

Fourth, her humility. Never by look, 
word, or action, is it recorded, that St. Joan 
considered her exceptional vocation to have 
been accorded her through any merit of her 
own. Humble and respectful to her su- 
periors, entirely unconscious with, her equals 
that she was different from them in any par- 
ticular, she went on her appointed way 
without a trace of any pride but that true 
pride which is self-respect. 

Fifth, her obedience. Her chroniclers 
say that never once did St. Joan disobey her 
parents, save on one occasion, when they 
wished to arrange for her a marriage which 



122 The Lesson of St, Joan's Life 

she refused to consider. She knew well that 
marriage and family and household joys 
were never to be hers. A willing instrument 
in the hands of God to perform His behests, 
the Maid had no thought but to obey the 
commands He had imposed upon her. For 
a long time after she had revealed her mis- 
sion to her father and mother she was for- 
bidden to leave home and seek the King as 
she had been told to do. And she obeyed 
them, until, having obtained their consent, 
however reluctant, she set forth for Vau- 
couleurs. When her wearisome attempt to 
see and tell Robert Baudricourt of her mis- 
sion had resulted only in his displeasure and 
contempt — he had angrily told her cousin 
to take her back to her parents — St. Joan 
turned meekly once more to Domremy, obe- 
dient, but neither discouraged nor dismayed. 
Sixth, her modesty and purity. Never 
had saint or heroine more relentless or vile 



The Lesson of St, Joan's Life 123 

traducers than St. Joan, but her .character 
was perhaps not more than once assailed. 
Pure and fair as a lily, she mingled in the 
camps and on the battle-fields with rough, 
warlike and often vicious men, but her purity 
covered her as with a shining mantle, and 
the lowest among them looked upon her as 
an angel, or a maiden but a little lower than 
the angel. 

Seventh, her heroic courage. 

Unused to courts, or camps, or battle-fields. 
She fought as one unto the manner born. 
And, scattering bloody hosts, raised, undis- 
mayed. 
Her pure, white standard, that last cruel 
morn; 
Nor faltered — though sore wounded — till 
they came. 
A cruel hand dragged her from her horse, 
Her head erect still, and her eyes aflame 



124 The Lesson of St. Joan's Life 

E'en while they carried her, with savage 
force, 
Into captivity. 

This heroism supported the Maid through 
the long, weary months of her imprison- 
ment; through the mockery of her trial, 
through the agony of her awful death. 

Eighth, her marvelous self-possession, 
which, though a desirable quality and not in 
itself a virtue, may become so when called 
into play under persecution or injustice. 
St. Joan was endowed with this attribute 
to a remarkable degree. It enabled her to 
confront courtiers and kings without fear or 
confusion, to perform wonders on the fields 
of battle, to marshal, arrange, and preserve 
those faculties so essential to one in her po- 
sition, to defy and confuse her foes and ac- 
cusers. It aided her to parry their attacks 
and demonstrate their falseness and treach- 
ery to future generations — to the world, 



The Lesson of St. Joan's Life 125 

which, after six hundred years, stands 
amazed at her cleverness and success in meet- 
ing and overthrowing their futile arguments 
— the world, which, wondering that for cen- 
turies her cause should so long have lain in 
abeyance, has finally had the triumph and 
happiness of seeing her placed by the Church 
among those who are known as the saints of 
God. 

Ninth, her charity and spirit of forgive- 
ness. Denounce some of the most despica- 
ble of her enemies St. Joan did ; but for the 
King who had deserted her, the false priests 
who had persecuted her, the judges who had 
condemned her the Maid asked forgiveness 
with her latest breath, thus imitating her 
Saviour, who, dying on the cross, com- 
mended His murderers to the mercy of His 
heavenly Father. 

The lesson of St. Joan's short, chequered 
young life is one that may be read with profit 
by maids and matrons, youths and men of 



126 The Lesson of St, Joan's Life 

years mature. To few has it been vouch- 
safed to be so set apart for God's instrument 
in the fulfilhnent of His decrees. But each 
and all can, within the limits of their calling, 
and capacity, follow in the footsteps of one 
whose virtues, though transcendent, are 
those which may shine and blossom in every 
Christian soul. 

O Blessed Maid, who conquered death, 
Thy brave and blameless years 

Have taught that Life's supremest breath 
Is drawn through toils and tears. 

Brighter the skies above thee shine 

As centm*ies roll by; 
Slain, not for dreams, but Truth Divine — 

The Truth that can not die! 

On the 16th of May, 1920, Pentecost Sun- 
day, St. Joan of Arc was formally canonized 
in Rome. The occasion was one of great 



The Lesson of St, Joan's Life 127 

edification and splendor, citizens of all 
nations being present in great numbers, 
French of course preponderating. One 
hundred and forty descendants of the an- 
cient d'Arc family attended. What pride 
and gratification must they not all have felt, 
when she, whose cause for 400 years had been 
slowly pressing to the front was at last pro- 
claimed a Saint by universal Christian ac- 
ceptance of her heroic sanctity. 

St. Joan of Arc — Pray for us. 



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